HymnJoyful, Joyful
O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing
Let the People Praise Thee, O God
This Much
O For a Faith that Will Not Shrink
This Joyful Day

The Message

Good morning. Isn’t it wonderful to be alive? You know under some circumstances people would say yes and then some other circumstances you sometimes don’t feel like smiling. Sometimes you don’t have this level of faith that you wish you could have or wish you did have. And today is all about faith. F-A-I-T-H. I’m going to teach you an acronym that one of my friends showed me a little earlier. F-A-I-T-H stands for Full Assurance in the Heart. When you have full assurance in the heart of knowing the truth of who we are in Christ and the power of His resurrection living in us through His holy spirit, this is what I want to talk about.

I don’t know how many of you know about me. We have a ministry called Life without Limbs and I’m an ordained evangelist and now associated with Crystal Cathedral. It is an honor to be a child of God. It is an honor to be a servant of the most high King and I’m so joyful to report that last year Life Without Limbs ministry went across fourteen countries. We actually in a span from October 1 to December 16 over ten weeks we reached out to half a million people. Ten countries, ten weeks, one hundred and ten engagements and I met a king, the King of Ghana. I met the president of Liberia. And it’s really cool like these kings in Africa, they have a throne and everything and it’s so cool. They’ve got a scepter and everything and they wanted to take my fingerprints, but I was short of them. But it’s really cool how you know they’ll want to take a photo with me and so they put me on the arm rest of the throne and my heads above him, you know, it’s so funny. Or you know they put me on the president’s desk where no one’s allowed to put their feet up, I can stand on. But why? Because we know that we are ambassadors of Christ. Amen?
This is the truth and in that faith my parents also had strength to raise a son with no arms and no legs. I was born this way and no one had any clue that by the age of twenty six that I’d be able to preach to three million people face to face and I’m so thankful to God that we’ve seen so far two hundred thousand first decisions for Christ that are being followed up by churches on the ground and it’s just amazing to be here with you and I pray that this is encouraging for you today.

I’m standing on a table and sometimes you know when you get a bit closer to the edge, you know, I don’t know if you are going to have a heart attack or anything but I’m just going to be careful because you know I don’t want you to sue me for an arm and a leg or anything like that. But here I am on the table; I don’t know if this makes you scared, I will not jump off. Its okay, but I want to talk about faith and courage because the reason I have accomplished things in my life by the grace of God is because I’ve had courage to try. You don’t know what you can achieve until you try.

But fear is the biggest disability of all that stops you from trying. Fear of uncertainty, fear of inadequacy, fear of not knowing what’s around the corner, fear of not knowing if you’re going to make it to the corner. We all have brokenness. But I want to give you an illustration here. If I’m here on the edge and I look down, don’t you think I’d be a little bit scared to jump off? Just a little bit? I mean I don’t want to break my arm or something. You know, fear: if I stay here for a long time and I stare at that ground I’m thinking okay I’m ready, I’m ready. No matter how long I stay here I will always have a fear that I have to overcome. You see I’ve heard many preachers say that courage is not an absence of fear but courage is when you do it afraid. That’s what courage is, but how. How did my parents raise such a good-looking son? I don’t know how I would be. My mother, it took her four months to come to terms with the fact that God allowed her son to be born without limbs. My parents were leaders of a church, planted a church eleven months before I was born. How can you have faith when you have fear? F-E-A-R the acronym for fear I’ve heard: False Evidence Appearing Real. False Evidence Appearing Real. But you get courage by your faith in Jesus Christ because it’s no longer I that liveth but Christ that lives in me.

It’s not by my strength that I can smile. It’s not by my strength that I can thank God for what I have instead of being angry at Him for what I do not have. That was not the strength of Nick Vujicic but I stand before you as a miracle of God. That you can see God living in me and I want to talk about the faith that we have. You know a lot of people when they talk about faith; well you know how can we believe in a God that allows bad things to happen? It’s an absolutely fair question. We all have questions. Many don’t find their answers and spend a lifetime of learning but never coming to acknowledge the truth. You see the truth is so important to acknowledge because the truth will set you free. You know whatever you’re in pursuit for, that video, verve? You know it’s in the context of verve describing vigor in spirit. I am in vigorous pursuit of God because I know whatever I put my heart and mind to here on earth with a job, with a career and if I put my security in one day hoping you know to accomplish this or acquire this or have a family and get married, whatever you put here on earth as your security, that’s holding your world up, everything but Jesus Christ is temporary. Everything but Jesus Christ is limited. You can be married and still feel alone. You can be rich yet be more poor than orphans I’ve seen in Africa. What is that? What is that?

Faith: how do we get faith? Trying to believe that God has a plan for a man without arms and legs, come on are you serious? If you were at the bedside of my mum as she was giving me birth and you tell her don’t worry it’s all-good. Come on. Try telling that mother who had this doctor who did this surgery, amazing surgery don’t you think there was a little bit of fear there? Yes. But we trusted in the one who knows, they trusted in the one who can do all things; the giver of life Himself, God; the giver of grace, love and mercy.
And the value of knowing Christ is greater than any temporary pleasure, high or possession here on earth. Money can’t heal a broken heart but Jesus can. And if I tell you that you have choice to believe it or not, see I can’t change your heart. I can’t convince you to believe in Jesus. I’m an evangelist. I’ve never saved a soul in my life. I can’t even save myself. It’s the Holy Spirit that as you hear the word this morning that the gift of faith comes by hearing of the word and then by His grace you make a commitment to walk and trust and pray and thank and grow and learn and love and hold on to. God never fails. He will never fail you. It’s a promise.

Well Nick how can I believe that? Well one of the first songs that I ever learned as a child, “Jesus loves me this I know.” Why? “For the bible tells me so.” Man, that’s all I’ve got? That’s all I need. By His grace I believe. You know faith, it’s an amazing thing. Without my faith I wouldn’t be here. At age eight I did not have faith. I did not find purpose. There is no meaning, there is no purpose in pursuing anything here on earth if everything is temporary and nothing can actually penetrate your heart like someone who understands. You can be crying on a friends shoulder but that’s all they can do. They can only hold you but they can’t understand. Jesus can. The truth of knowing that tears are a language that God understands is the greatest comfort of all. And that’s why I’m happy.

I was just in Brooklyn Tabernacle a couple weeks ago and one of the sisters were taking photo and she’s like happiness. And I’m like that is so cool. Happiness! I’m doing it all the time. What is happiness? What is it? It’s when you know God. It is. It’s the greatest purpose to live for. At age eight I didn’t have that purpose. At age eight I didn’t have that hope and I tried to give up in a bathtub. Thank God that I’m still here. Thank God that at least one soul has seen this miracle. Not glory to me, not power to me, all to Him.
In Psalm 37, in fact you heard it before but I want to just read it again; “Trust in the Lord and do good” from verse three. “Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in Him and He will do this. He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.” In the King James version it says rest. Everybody say rest. Rest is so great. Rest is so good. You know we get so busy and it’s funny how we’re being busy digging holes, trying to find things that are going to give us rest. And we never stop digging. If you never stop digging you’ll never find rest. When you find out that the rest is not from down below but up from above. That’s what He’s done for me. I’ve seen God in my life and I delight in Him.

Who is Jesus for me? He is my king, He is my Savior, He is my Redeemer but man through His power I become more than a conqueror. Who am I conquering? The devil and his lies. Nick, you’re not good enough. Nick, this is too hard for you. No by the word of God this is the sword of the spirit that can break any chain of depression, any chain of addiction, any chain of loneliness and He doesn’t have to change a circumstance. That God can use this. If God doesn’t give you a miracle, you are a miracle for someone else.

Can I share with you an amazing story? Last year in Orange County I was speaking at a church and in the crowd was a little boy. His name is Daniel; 19 months old. He had no arms and he had no legs except for my little foot down here, he had a little foot just like me. He was so cool. Put soul to soul, full foot to foot. You know I did a peace sign and everything; it was so cute. But we brought him up on stage and everybody stopped. You could hear a pin drop and then crying. Why? Because it was a miracle. If God let me go through this suffering, first of all, so I need Him and so God can use me to save that other soul. Can you imagine his parents went through the exact same thing my parents went through? The doctors told them your son may not walk. Your son may not go to school. If he has a wheelchair we have no idea what wheelchair he’s going to need. Exactly the same thing that my parents heard when I was born: We are so sorry, we don’t know what to do. We don’t know of anybody else. You’re alone. And that morning my parents were on a plane from Australia to come visit me in California where I now live and I saw them speak to each other. And her mother, sorry Daniel’s mother came up to me and said, “Nick when I hugged you for the first time it felt like I was hugging my son twenty-four years later. You have no idea how long I’ve been praying that God would send me a sign to let me know that He has not forgotten me or my son. You are a miracle. You are a miracle.”

God can use all things if you give Him first of all delight yourself in the Lord; who He is to you. Through the power of Christ, whatever Christ conquered I can conquer. There is no other religious leader ever in the history of man who pointed to themselves as divinity except Jesus Christ. Jesus was the only authority to forgive sin because He had no sin. Anyone who has sin does not have that authority but Jesus: He was holy. He died on the cross and whatever Jesus conquered, He conquered the grave; I’m going to conquer the grave. Jesus conquered the devil and the lies; I’m going to conquer the devil and the lies. That’s where Jesus is the foundation of all that I am. You take out my eyes, take off my nose, take out my tongue, take off my ears but you’ll never take away my Jesus. And whether you believe me or not by His grace I hope that you do because here we go. Here’s an illustration talking about wanting to believe something but you just can’t believe it. People say these days Nick you have one foot. Why? Because you only see one foot. People say well Nick I don’t really believe what you believe because I believe that your own faith determines reality. I don’t agree. Because you could look at me and say well Nick has one foot. What if I told you I had two feet? Would you believe me if I had two feet? Would you believe me if I had three feet? If I said that, what would you believe? Whatever you believe doesn’t change the facts. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there. Again here’s my little foot. I got a little foot, little junior here man. Here it is. There it is. It’s one little toe and he hides up there. All right?

Faith is not about feeling, faith is not about seeing, faith is believing whether you see or not. Believing whether you feel or not. I don’t feel like praising God. Well is God worthy of your praise? Yes! He is the greatest delight of my life and I can trust in Him. These are all verbs: delight, trust, commit and rest. Rest. Every human being has to come to terms with surrendering what happens to their soul after their last breath. My soul is in the hands of God. And the evidence of His spirit in me gives me peace, love and joy beyond compare.

Are you getting this? I don’t want to just make you feel good. Maybe it’s not the average message you’ve heard from me before. But this is so true. Without God I am alone. You know I don’t know what you are going through today but I know who does. I know that He loves you and there is nothing that you can do or not do that would change His love for you. He has such a plan for your life and I don’t understand what you’re going through, I don’t know your pain but wait upon the Lord, call upon Him. Seek Him and you’ll find Him. His grace is sufficient. If money holds your world up today it may crumble. But if you let Jesus hold your world up today and lift you up He will never fail you. Just in your heart right now you might be seeing me across the building or right now in your home I want you to just close your eyes and just say this prayer with me:

Lord God I need You. I can’t do this on my own. I want to know You more. Help me to trust You. Help me to believe in You and help me to rest in Your arms. Father, I just ask that every single person who’s heard this message this morning all around the world would be touched by Your Holy Spirit. Depression, sadness or loss, we thank You God that You are with us and You’ll never leave us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.